Technical Difficulties
by Mooselk
Summary: Robot AU In technologically advanced Valinor, an inventor and his wife test the meaning of "living".
1. Chapter 1

**Technical Difficulties**

**By **Mooselk

* * *

Their first son was beautiful. It took Fëanáro a frustratingly long time to get the alloy for the skin tone just right, to make the organs out of the finest materials, to write enough programs to keep the child functional, but when it –he- was finished, when he saw the love and pride in Nerdanel's eyes as she beheld their first child, he knew that it had been worth the time.

The face had been modeled on Nerdanel's sketches, the hair made out of the finest copper wire. Fëanáro smiled at his wife's joy as she proclaimed him, "Maitimo." And when the child opened his silver eyes, smiled, and said, "Atar!" in his high, perfect voice, Fëanáro could almost believe that he was flesh and blood.

It was not long before Nerdanel and Fëanáro felt the need for another child, a brother for Nelyafinwë. Again they labored, with Nelyo watching curiously from behind.

"Is that how I was made? Will my new brother be just like me? "

"Yes, sweetling, this is how you were made, but each of you will be different and unique," Nerdanel answers him with a smile, looking up from a complicated program concerning musical talent that she is writing.

A Year after Macalaurë's "birth", as Nerdanel jokingly called the moment when they pulled the tiny "on" switch, Nelyo begs to meet other children. Children of flesh and blood. His parents agree with some hesitation.

Nelyo comes back with bright, sparkling tears trickling down his little, perfect face.

"They said I was different and strange, a-and that me and Káno shoulnd't have existed. They said that we are not r-real," he sobbed into Nerdanel's shoulder. She wiped his tears away with a clean cloth, dying it silver.

"They are wrong, my Maitimo. You are special and precious, and oh, so real. Otherwise, how would you hug me?"

He gives her a tremulous smile at that, and outside, Fëanáro unclenches his fists. _I will show them..._

More sons follow, each different and special. Lord Oromë takes a special interest in Tyelkormo, who's wood-lore program is his center interest.

Carnistir damages himself more often than all his other brothers combined. He falls from cliff tops, get run over by horses. Fëanáro once asks him, in worried exasperation, whether Carnistir wants to die that badly. Carnistir does not reply in the negative and Nerdanel leaves the room crying.

His oldest sons are very good when it comes to Upgrades. Nelyo sits down obediently, shaking his glittering hair from his neck to expose the small panel that contains his switches. Fëanáto gently sets him to "Sleep" and begins his work. The limbs must be elongated, the face must mature. New programs need to be installed. The whole process takes about a week. Macalaurë lingers outside the window, watching with barely traceable worry. But Maitimo is good as new when he walks out, tall and proud, with many new features and capabilities and this prompts Macalaurë to be quite agreeable to Upgrades as well.

After Tyelkormo's first Upgrade, he tests his limbs, tears up, and yells, "Change me back! I don't want to be like this!" When Fëanáro shrugs and tells him he will get used to it, he smashes his fist into the nearest wall and storms out. The fist leaves a dent.

Nerdanel does not approve when Fëanáro wants to make a near-clone of himself. He is insistent, however, and so she helps, however unwillingly. She slips in a couple programs and traits when he is not looking. He finds out eventually, but it is far too late to delete the offending changes. In retaliation, he installs Loyalty to himself as one of the major traits of the new child. Curufinwë the younger seldom leaves Fëanáro's side.

The Ambarussa are a feeble attempt at healing the rift that has grown between Nerdanel and her husband. It is the most impressive project they have ever completed. The two move in synchrony and speak together. They see out of each other's eyes and yet are capable of being completely independent from each other. They are beautiful. The marriage fails anyway

And years later, Nerdanel begs him to leave her the twins, as a memory of what they had.

"Someone must be saved from your fool's quest! Let it be them!"

Fëanáro laughs in her face. All seven go with him.

The Teleri stand no chance when faced with the new programs installed specifically for battle. After the battle, their people cry, but the sons of Fëanáro heed their father and remain impassive, canceling the Guilt code before it can run. They board the rockets quickly and efficiently.

On the other shore, Maitimo speaks to him softly, asking for whom the ships will be sent back.

"None and none!" Fëanáro replies. This is no time to be faced with the silly Sentimentality that his wife had insisted on. "We will destroy them now."

"But Atar!" Maitimo gasps, horrified and Fëanáro looks at him queerly. "But...the rest of our family is..!"

"We have no family that is not here with us. Here," he holds out a blaster, "You will be first to shoot."

"I will not," the whisper is barely audible

"What?!"

"I said I will not, Atar!"

"You dare defy me?! Your father and creator?"

Atarinkë appears at his shoulder, looking at his eldest brother with uncomprehending eyes.

"Atar has ordered it, Nelyo. You cannot defy him,"

" I will not take part in the destruction of these rockets," Maitimo says, and turns his back

"You-" Fëanáro reaches towards his son's neck. The panel is barely visible, but if he can just…

Maitimo hits his father's arm away and runs. _Damn superior reflexes!_

With a wild curse, Fëanáro shoots at the white swans and watches as they catch fire. He is going to have to downgrade the Free Will and Independence he installed into Maitimo at his coming-of-age.

He never gets the chance.

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**A/N: Sci-Fi AUs are always fun. I might continue this.**

**Name Guide:**

Fëanáro: Fëanor

Maitimo: Maedhros

Macalaurë/Káno: Maglor

Tyelkormo: Celegorm

Carnistir: Caranthir

Atarinkë: Curufin

Ambarussa: Amrod and Amras

**Translations:**

Atar: Father


	2. Chapter 2

The messenger is waiting for them when they return to their people, with an ugly, Orc grin on his ugly, Orc face. Carnistir probably would have run him through then and there, regardless of the white flag he carried, had he and Tyelko not been supporting Curufinwë. It had taken both of them to move him from his spot, an expression of anguish frozen on his face, and he would not leave him now. Family bonds overrode almost everything in his system, even his flammable temper.

It falls to Maitimo to handle it, Maitimo who is King now. What the gossips back in Tirion would have said about the situation! To have a machine ruling the Noldor, how blasphemous! Maitimo allows himself a small, grim smile at the theoretical situation and goes to speak with the messenger.

It takes the entirety of the orc army to overcome him, but they manage it in the end, their crude blasters pointed at his head and at his chest, and powerful magnets affecting his inner circuits.

He is brought before Moringotto. The Ainu's eyes blaze, and it isn't only the light of the Silmarils that are pulsating in his crown. Since his release, Moringotto had been overly curious about Fëanáro's sons. Maitimo vividly remembers having to firmly fend him off time and time again when he came closer than was comfortable to himself or to one of his younger brothers. Moringotto rememberes it as well, evidently, for a sickening smile splits his face, gleaming with silver teeth, and he says, "At last I've got you where I want you, pretty one." And all Maitimo can do is spit in his enemy's face and turn his awareness as low as it can go. That is, until Moringotto finds a way to manipulate his sensors.

* * *

"How dare they claim to feel our pain? How dare they?! How can they say they understand when they don't have hearts that break or hands that freeze? How can they—"

Findekáno quietly gets up, and exits, leaving his brother to rage. He leans against a stone wall as soon as Turukáno is out of earshot and buries his face in his hands. Maitimo is gone.

His father had not approved of their friendship initially. When Findekáno had spent his fourth night over at the Fëanorian household, Nolofinwë had taken him aside.

"I am happy that you have found a friend," he had said, "But you must remember, Finno, that the sons of Fëanáro are also his creations. They are not Eldar, only machines. So do not get too attached, lest they hurt you- not on purpose, I'm sure!- but simply out of ignorance."

Findekáno had not said anything then- he had still idolized his father to a degree at that age- but later, he found it amusing in a bout of hysterical laughter that the same Sons that his father was very ready to call down curses and blame onto were once deemed incapable of human interaction. (never mind that he cursed them also. He had always believed them to be as human as he himself was.)

And if he still had doubts when he met with the Fëanorians, the crack in Macalaurë's perfect, infallible voice convinced him that there was grief, and pain, and the same confusing mix of emotions going through the metallic minds of his cousins as were in his own, flesh and blood. It did not make him feel any less anger or contempt for his treacherous cousins, but at least he knew they cared. In their own way, in programs and codes, but they cared.

But they wouldn't save him. And he had no obligations to. But damn it at all if he was going to leave his best friend at the hands of Moringotto.

Armed with one of his uncles prized laser edged blades- a begetting day present from his cousin a long time ago- and a transmitter, he sneaks an escape pod away from the Hísilómë and flies off toward the dark shadow that is Angband.

His pod is too large; he abandons it in no-man's land and progresses on foot. The transmitter is basically useless this close to Moringotto's stronghold, where all wavelengths are permanently blocked; the only thing it can do is play music, which is what Findekáno ends up using it for. He has a ridiculous thought that no one can yell at him for his atrocious musical taste- their words, not his!- out here.

It is pure luck that helps him. The track skips, sputters-he didn't even know that devices could _do _that- and goes silent. But instead of the expected silence, someone starts singing the refrain.

He thinks it's an orc. The voice rasps, with a metallic tone at the back of it, empty, toneless. But how would an orc know _Cuivië-calima_ songs? Even in Valinor the only other person who had ever cared about them was-

Oh Eru, Maitimo.

"Maitimo!" Where was he? He had sounded so close…

"Up here!" comes the reply. What had Moringotto done to his vocal programs, Findekáno wonders detachedly, looking up. Maitimo sounds like the child of a kitchen drone and an orc. Then, spying his friend, he realizes that damaged vocal chords are the least of Maitimo's problems.

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**A/N: I decided to keep going with this. Forgive me if there are atrocious technical mistakes (and point them out please!)**

**Thanks to The Wayfaring Strangers for the review! (All of your questions will hopefully be answered eventually.)**

**Tbc...**


End file.
